Recently oDesk announced they’ll be teaming up with concrete5, an open source content management system, to help the oDesk and concrete5 communities connect with expert developers and designers.

Although it went slightly under the radar, Elance announced a deal with EHealth late November which will see its 300,000 strong online workforce have the ability to tap into health care benefits. The deal will enable the Elance workforce to search and compare thousands of private medical care policies and health insurance policies open to freelance workers in the US.

Elance, today announced a partnership with eHealth to provide healthcare options and access to high quality health insurance for small businesses and professionals who work online.

TemplateMonster.com and Freelancer.com, today announced a strategic partnership to offer tens of thousands of Template Monster products to 1.8 million registered professionals on Freelancer.com, as well as to small businesses worldwide.

Elance, today announced it is now available in the Google Apps Marketplace™, Google's online storefront for Google Apps™ products and services. The integration will enable businesses and freelancers to use their Google Apps accounts to login in to Elance and hire and manage remote contractors in the cloud. Now, users can access Elance directly from Google Apps, allowing them to manage current projects on Elance and find skilled contractors and freelancers at the click of a button.

Elance re-launched its affiliate programme yesterday. The new affiliate marketing scheme is administered through the cj.com affiliate network.

Elance, today announced its participation as a partner in the new Microsoft WebsiteSpark Program. The WebsiteSpark Program provides eligible Web development and design firms with Microsoft software and solution licenses on several of its most popular and current technologies, with no up-front costs, including Windows Web Server, Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Expression Studio and Microsoft SQL Server Web edition, as well as the support and training they need to offer Web site hosting on the Microsoft Web Platform. Elance’s participation in the WebsiteSpark Program is a leap forward in making the Microsoft Web Platform more accessible to the thousands of individuals and teams of Web professionals who work on Elance.

oDesk, today announced the availability of Share on Twitter for oDesk users. By integrating with Twitter, oDesk enables its users worldwide to tap into their network of Twitter followers for important work connections.